


woah? christmas gay people?

by crumbpet



Category: HLVRAI - Fandom, Half Life VR But The AI Is Self Aware
Genre: Christmas, First Kiss, Fluff, Not A Game AU, Not Beta Read, Other, Post-Canon, Short, This Is Incredibly Self Indulgent, he/they benrey, i don’t know how to tag, probably ooc but i don’t really mind, teen for cursing, yeah really short actually
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-23
Updated: 2020-12-23
Packaged: 2021-03-10 20:14:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,199
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28252983
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/crumbpet/pseuds/crumbpet
Summary: short little self indulgent thing 2 cheer myself up, hopefully it cheers someone else up too!
Relationships: Benrey/Gordon Freeman
Comments: 7
Kudos: 92





	woah? christmas gay people?

**Author's Note:**

> no experience posting on this site or anything um. the crippling fear of being known
> 
> like i said, this is prooobably. Likely ooc . but it’s cool bro i am literally just sitting here

Waking up at 5am on Christmas Day was an annoying habit Gordon had picked up and never left by the roadside. He dragged his feet on the floorboards as he weaved his way to the living room, planning to either fall asleep on the couch or just watch the lights on the tree flash until his eyes hurt. 

He peeked through the door and smiled at the scene. There were more presents under the tree than he’d ever seen before. Some messy, with patterned paper and some more neatly wrapped. Even if he’d never admit it, it filled him with childlike glee to wonder which ones were his, and who’d got him what.

“hey.” He jumped at the sound, whipping his head around to see Benrey, sprawled across the couch. Gordon smiled, stepping further into the room and doing a full body stretch. 

“Hey,” Gordon gently prompted for Benrey to move up, and they did. “and morning, I guess. You been playing games all night?” Gordon sat down, shuffling over to look down at the screen of Benrey’s switch. He shook his head.

“woke up.” Benrey didn’t bother to reciprocate the question. Gordon didn’t mind — it was probably pretty obvious he’d just woken up. “you, uh. you wanna snuggle? get a better view of my game.”

Gordon felt his face redden and hoped it wasn’t too visible in the dim coloured light from the tree. Cuddling was something the pair had gotten used to, even before Gordon realised he had feelings for Benrey. Back then he played it off as being touch starved and lonely, but eventually the physical contact got added to the long list of Things That Cannot Be Ignored Regarding Benrey and Feelings. After about five minutes of consideration, Gordon realised… Yeah. He’d fallen for them. Hard. Since then, he just tried to ignore it.

Wordlessly, he leant against the arm of the couch and motioned for them to lie on him. Benrey quickly obliged, scooting between his legs, turning his back to him and flopping down on his torso. Gordon wheezed, tossing his arms across their chest in retaliation.

“Jesus, man, you winded me.” He teased, leaning his head on Benrey’s shoulder and watching him play. Benrey snickered, then didn’t say anything more. Gordon didn’t mind, he wasn’t in the mood for conversation either. Far too busy relishing in the warmth he managed to steal from Benrey’s body. They were like a damn space heater, despite how weirdly cold their individual limbs always were. Thinking about the logistics too much made Gordon’s head hurt.

“oh,” Benrey mumbled, pulling out of Gordon’s arms. Gordon sat up with him, instinctively chasing the warmth but quickly playing it off as curiosity. Smooth. “got you somethin’.” Okay, now he was actually curious.

“Like, a gift? Shouldn’t we wait until everyone else wakes up?-“ Gordon stole a glance over their shoulder as they rummaged around for something in the bag beside the couch, back turned. 

“this is a special one. gotta, um- only for you.” Benrey yanked something out of the bag, shuffling back to his original sitting position, facing Gordon this time. They presented the gift to him, holding it in their hands between them. It was a hair clip, gold and glittery, with an artificial sprig of holly attached to it. Not the most valuable thing on earth — knowing Benrey it was most likely shoplifted from a Target — but Gordon felt his heart melt all the same. 

“it’s, uh. mist-all-toe.” Benrey held the accessory between his thumb and forefinger, holding it up between them, a little higher than head height. “oops. we gotta, uhm. gotta,” They decided to forgo words, making kissy faces to illustrate their intentions instead. 

Gordon blue-screened. This was the man he’d fallen for, sitting in front of him, offering to kiss and seeming more genuine than he’d ever been before, through the most wonky pick up line gift ever. It wasn’t even real! It wasn’t even mistletoe, for god’s sake! The whole thing was so fucked and so cute and so unequivocally Benrey it rendered him speechless. In a good way.

Benrey started to shift awkwardly. Fuck. Come on Gordon, say something! Anything! 

“That’s,” Gordon stuttered. “that’s not mistletoe.” God, great response, genius. “That’s holly.” Oh, dig yourself deeper into this hole of despair, why don’t you? Benrey’s hopeful face fell back to apathy, the arm holding the clip falling with it. They looked down at the floor, studying the carpet like it was the most interesting thing they’d ever seen. 

“oh. um.” Gordon’s heart ached at how small Benrey’s voice was. “just kidding. el oh el.” Gordon gently grabbed his wrist, scrambling to backtrack.

“No, no, I don’t- That’s not what I-“ He spluttered, cutting himself off with a deep breath and taking the clip. “I really like it, thank you.” Gordon punctuated that with a smile, that seemed to lift Benrey’s spirits a little. They were still down from the accidental rejection, though. He’d have to fix that. 

“And, it’s so- so pretty, that- um. I think,“ Benrey watched him quizzically as he stumbled over the stunted metaphor, one eyebrow raised. “I think I’d better give you- something, in return. Don’t wanna be. Um. Unfair.” The continued silence only exacerbated his rambling. Eventually Benrey decided to spare him and speak up.

“bro. slow down. chill. i don't know what you mean?” Benrey put a hand over Gordon’s, still on his wrist. “slowly. please?” Gordon nodded, and started to wrack his brain to find the words he needed. The combination of tiredness and the feeling of very almost nearly holding hands with Benrey weren’t doing anything to help, either.

“Um,” He began, before shaking his head and scrunching his eyes shut. “God, fuck this, actually.” Gordon reached his hands up to hold Benrey’s face, leaning in and pressing his lips to theirs. It was short and chaste, and his lips were chapped from the cold, but when he pulled away Benrey was still looking up at him like he’d hung the moon.

“wow.” Benrey said, in what could regretfully only be described as a squeak. “buh- bbbb- best gift ever.” Gordon snorted, dipping his head down. When he registered the positive feedback he shot back up, looking down at them with wide eyes.

“Best- so, you liked it? Good? Yeah? You, um- you care me?” Benrey blinked, giving him a bemused look. Eventually he just slumped forward, wrapping his arms around Gordon’s torso and burying his head in his chest.

“you got the wrong prescription? those nerd glasses do nothing for you?” Gordon snorted, rubbing gentle circles into their back. “i care you.” Benrey punctuated the confession with a gentle kiss to the underside of Gordon’s jaw. He felt a toothy grin take over his features and he pulled them closer.

“I care you too. I, I love you.” Benrey snuggled further into his shirt, mumbling an “i love you too” against it. Gordon felt himself start to drift asleep, pulling a nearby blanket over both of them as an afterthought. And as he felt sleep overtake him, he just barely felt a familiarly cold hand push the hair clip into his hair.


End file.
